On the Road

Veneno is a young man with a troubled past hustling his way around Mexico and offering sexual favors to truckers in exchange for cash. When he meets Muñeco, a relatively closed off and seemingly straight older truck driver with problems of his own, he joins him hauling freight through the Mexican desert. As the road goes on and they form an emotional bond that puts them both in danger, Veneno's secrets are slowly uncovered and his past threatens to catch up with him.

Secrecy, pain and desire collide in this intense, emotional and unashamedly erotic thriller that won the Queer Lion and Best Picture in the Horizons section at the Venice Film Festival. Writer-director David Pablos takes the audience deep into the seedy netherworld of outlaw Mexican truck drivers where drugs, violence and sex are like currency and danger haunts the long straights of the road. Ximena Amann's masterful cinematography is so evocative, you can feel the heat and smell the petrol coming off the screen.

While it is drenched in masculine energy and dark intensity, it is the tenderness at the heart of the story that pulls the film together and leaves the deepest mark.

- Jordan Salomen